Week 16: As the curtain closes... (i.e. Reflective "meta" post)

By: Kristina B on Flikr (7/10/2008) Some rights reserved.

Well, it honestly feels like this semester has gone by very quickly. Although i have always been a regular networked media user, watching several blogs, news sites and a constant participant in social networking, I'm really glad that i've been exposed to several new sites and concepts.

For example, Del.icio.us is the best place to go if you want to share links with friends or just random members of the public and I've started to read this really cool design blog Toxel. Blogger has allowed me to have several gadgets and feeds in my blog so readers are not just confronted with my weekly ramblings. My blog journey has been different throughout the semester. At first i felt it would be a breeze and was relieved at the simple task but after neglecting to post for a couple of weeks i realised that constant note keeping and link collection was needed to keep up. However, i can never say it has been hard keeping a blog, time consuming maybe, but it certainly hasn't been tiresome.

In future blogging, i would like to develop some CSS for my blog, a nicer background and different fonts and maybe even create my own gadgets for the site because the look of my blog is probably my largest self-criticism. I played around with the templates on blogger and felt what i chose was most appropriate for now. I've discovered what a great advertising tool blogging in, if your blog is popular. For instance, popular celebrity blogger Perez Hilton started as a normal guy writing about celebrities, but through self-promotion and popularity, he is not only a celebrity in his own right, but also a multi-millionaire. This, all from spending time at his home computer!

Unfortunately i wasn't able to find a 'visitor counter' gadget to add to my blog, so i am unaware of the traffic that goes through my site. I formally asked permission from the majority of picture/video sources i have used in my blog as well as advertising, so i hope this attracts some traffic as well as adding a 'Subscribe to' feature on my blog. Networked Media has been a really fun unit, i've learnt new things and i look forward to further practising Networked Media. I've nominated the following three posts for assessment as i not only feel they are my best, but they are also my favourite topics from the semester. Ironically they were studied one after another, which probably makes it easier for marking, but is a funny coincidence:

1. Week 10 - Web 2.o
2. Week 11 - Multiplicity
3. Week 12 - Data Visualisation

Happy Holidays and good luck on your exams!
-Sean

Lost and found I-phones

By: Paul Miller on Engadget (9/06/2009)

Even though i do not own a I-Phone myself, i still think they're pretty cool and with the new one, there is a feature to find it if you have lost it or someone has stolen it. Read the rest of the article on Engadget :-)

Cooking Black eyed peas!

You can cook Black eyed peas? What??

http://www.cooksden.com/black-eyed-peas-w-collard-greens-cajun-vegetarian-recipe/

Production Project B: Geo-Narrative Rationale

For production project B i decided i would create a geo-narrative. As with the other assessments i had not been exposed to such a thing, in fact i did not even know what it was. A geo-narrative (Geographical narrative) is a story told through geography. As the assignments asks, i completed mine through Google Maps. Online, this is the best way to complete it and although i am always using Google maps, previous to this assignment i had no idea it was a feature. I immediately thought to re-tell my recent travels overseas but quickly changed my mind as they may not be viewed as interesting as a fictional tale, so i went with my short-narrative 'Tour le Med'.

Penguin Publishers had released a series of 'Digital fictions' on their website and one of them is a geo-narrative entitled 'The 21 Steps'. I had a look at this to give me an idea of what to expect and it's a really indepth tale. I believe the geographical element in google maps make's the story far more interesting and i'd say that while my story is much shorter and less detailed i have followed the main structure of a geo-narrative. Due to the fact that we had to keep our narrative relatively short, i feel the introduction of images to each marker-point filled the story. I like that in the story i could skip large amounts of time forward without taking away from the meaning, because it is based on different locations. In other words, the images and mapping mean that the author doesn't necessarily have to tell all parts of the story for it to make sense.

I would suggest one of the negatives is when the geo-narrative is complete there are certain elements that remain unpolished. For instance, when the reader goes to each point, the narrative part of the story is not always centred on the screen and the map is at various different zoom levels. These are minor faults and it could also be argued that this gives the reader more space to interact with the medium by selecting where they want the box to be and how much zoom they want.

Though i had to complete this as part of my networked media assesment, i'm considering using it in the future. It's a fun and user-friendly way of documenting travels or adding an interactive quality to an otherwise one-way narrative, a new aspect to networked media. I'm interested to see the possibilities and extra developments that could occur in the future if other sites use the Google Maps API for geo-narratives.


View 'Tour le Med' in a larger map

Week 15 - Nearly holidays!

By: Chrislrmo on Flikr (3/07/2006) Some rights reserved.

Yay, nearly holidays! This week i've been working a lot on my Geo-narrative. Although i planned much of it earlier in the semester, i've had to put it off for a while due to my other assessments. Originally i planned to do a non-fiction narrative based on my recent time overseas, but after thinking about it for a while i realised it would be hard to make that into a interesting tale. I also think it would limit the use of alternative media products. Instead i am mixing some non-fiction with fiction to put together something worth reading, although i wouldn't hold my breath. I'll be using some photos of mine as well as photos off the web (Flikr etc.) The Geo-narrative is a clever concept and one that i didn't know exsisted until i began this piece of assessment. Basically it is a story told through Google maps, which you can set to private or public and it is free.

By: ~BostonBill~ on Flikr (4/06/2009) Some rights reserved.

Although our lectures have long finished, we finish up our computer labs this week. After discussing our upcoming exam with Nathan, we continued to work on our assignments. I'm not sure how i feel about our exam as i have missed out on a few lectures and have had to rely on the notes provided, but i'm going to brush up on htose as well as the definitions of the different mediums we've studied this semester.

Japanese man hole covers

By: Unknown on Toxel via Digg (30/05/2009)

The title may sound very strange, but hopefully the picture explains it all! Check out the rest of the article on Digg :-)

Week 14 - Stereotypes that are often true...

Love your parents have left to give
Number of family minivans
Time you have alone to masturbate
Times caught masturbating alone
Odds you live in a polygamist compound
Closeness of family
How Irish you are

By: CH Staff on CollegeHumour (27/05/2009)

How many of us have a life chart that looks like this? Meanwhile, unfortunately i was not able to attend this week's tutorial, but i have continued to work on my production project (B). My geo-narrative is coming along. I haven't finalised my story, but it is loosely based on my own travels around Europe and the U.K. in 2007-2008. I'm fascinated by the new features i am learning about on GoogleMaps. While of course i have been working on my assignment and studying for exams, i have also managed to find this great cover of Kanye West's Heartless by American band 'The Fray'. Check it out :-)


By: djshea16 on YouTube (18/01/2009)

Week 13 - Brand My Day

By: Jane Sample on Brand My Day via Jason Kottke on Kotkke (18/05/2009)

Brand My Day is a really cool website where you can create a map of all the brands you use in a normal day. Check it out :-) As our lectures have finished up we only had a computer lab this week. I haven't been working on my Geo-Narrative this week as i've had other assessment to do so i worked on my blog in our labs. Although i've been taking notes during the semester, i have had to catch up on a few of my posts. It's been a good way of immersing myself in networked media as i would never have done a blog if it wasn't a piece of assessment. I find it's also going to come in handy when studying for our exam.

By: jackhynes on Flikr (23/01/2007) Some rights reserved.

Week 12 - Data Visualisation

By: Hiro Sheridan on Flikr (5/08/2008) Some rights reserved.

This week's lecture with Michael Honey was one of the most interesting we've had this semester. He discussed the idea of Data Visualisation. Before the lecture i had a rough idea of what Data Visualisation from just piecing together the words data and visualisation, but i couldn't have shown you an example or anything.

By: antjeverena on Flikr (19/03/2009) Some rights reserved.

Data Visualisation is the representation of abstract or non physical information. Basically it's presenting data in an effective, visual way. The point of it is to collate meaningless data in a user friendly medium, bringing more context to information. While graphs and charts are an easy and efficient way to present small values, Data Visualisation should be employed in representing large numbers. As Michael re-iterated, statistics and figures are thrown at us every day, on the news, in the papers, at work and university and much of the time it is either ignored or taken lightly because of the way it is presented. It is a fact that humans group things in their minds to visualise and take them in easier, otherwise known as 'chunking'. The size, colour, shape, movement, position and scale of information presented visually heavily impacts on how it is perceived. I really believe in the idea of Data Visualisation, mainly because it worked on me, with the examples Michael showed anyway.

[During the lecture, Michael's computer had an error so we couldn't proceed for about ten minutes, he said we should blog about this fascinating experience, so here you go]

Hans Rosling explains how Data Visualisation works with various different statistics on TED Talks (an annual conference of informative speakers, all online for free, check it out!):




By: Hans Rosling on TED (February 2006)

You can see examples of Data Visualisation in many things you view online, like the most popular viewed articles on Digg, most searched terms on Google and Wikipedia represented in a larger font, with those that are less popular shown as smaller font in the background. Besides relieving boredom and adding necessary humour to complex issue, complete and understandable access to data like this could save lives and bring context to many issues that people don't understand. Jonathan Harris is another motivational speaker that has created the 'We Feel Fine' initiative, an 'exploration of human emotion'. Jonathan captures thoughts, feelings and actions (under six different groups) from all over the online world and presents them in a data visualisation. It really is amazing and i guarantee that all will find it thought provoking and enjoyable. Follow some of the links i've attached at the end of the post also as it's a subject that deserves attention and understanding.


By: Jonathan Harris on TED (March 2007)

Check out more on Data Visualisation:
- gapminder.org
- resilliantaustralia.org
- processing.org

And a project our very own course convener Dr. Mitchell Whitelaw is working on)
- visiblearchive.blogspot.com

By: anthony mattox on Flikr (29/01/2009) Some rights reserved.

Week 11 - Multiplicity

By: HuNo (On & Off) on Flikr (11/01/2009) Some rights reserved.

By: Bobasonic on Flikr (18/06/2006) Some rights reserved.

Following this week's lecture by Michael Honey, I found Multiplicity to be quite complex, but after having a look at a few examples online, i feel i can understand it now. Basically Multiplicity is adding other elements to or 'remixing' an original piece of media. In this post I've shown examples of how it works in photographs but most people would be familiar with parodies of politicians and celebrities that have been 'remixed' and edited to create a new product. For example, in our tutorials Nathan showed us a video of ex-U.S. President George Bush singing 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'. The artist has taken snippets of George Bush's voice from one of his speeches and created a whole new product for comedic effect. One of my favourite examples of this is a video clip made by Pauline Pantsdown (satyrical impersonator of ex-politician Pauline Hanson) entitled 'I Don't Like It', which was also very successful on radio when it was released 1998.

By: AaronFarquhar on YouTube (10/08/2008)

During the lecture, Michael also explained that Multiplicity works with popularity. Obviously something is going to sell a lot better the more popular it is and websites such as I-Tunes, Ebay and Amazon thrive on ratings and customer feedback. Next to advertising and marketing, consumers are most influenced by the opinions of other consumers and these websites are current proof of how social networking and Multiplicity is successfully making it's way into the market place. Although many of us would like to think it's the most credible site out there, WikiPedia at the end of the day is a bunch of submissions from people around the world, put together to produce information. Much like this, online forums and groups convene and combine from a common interest or to achieve an answer. In the case of photography and video production, Multiplicity can be very time consuming but at the same time (as long as defamation and copyright lawsuits do not ensue!) it is mostly cost effective. When you think about it, Multiplicity is using a product that has already been created. In all its forms, Multiplicity can send out a powerful message, assist or just make people laugh.

By: vernhart on Flikr (17/06/2007) Some rights reserved.

Week 10 - Web 2.0

By: Daniel F. Pigatto on Flikr (24/12/2006) Some rights reserved.

After finishing Production Project A, an assessment filled 'holidays' and being sick i am now back, fully concentrating on Networked Media Production. Unfortunately because i was sick i was unable to make it to Week 10's Lecture and Tutorial, but i read the notes that Nathan posted about Web 2.0. and social media. Web 2.0 is considered to be the next generation of the world wide web, with several web communities and social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc.), Blogs (Blogger, Tumblr etc.) and video sharing (YouTube, Blip TV). This next generation increases the amount of elements of interaction on websites and although previous to Web 2.0, the Internet had achieved huge change in the world and it's conception revolutionised technology, Web 2.0 is taking that next step up to alter the way people interact with one another.

One of the more interesting points i found in the articles Nathan posted was the fact that the introduction of I-Tunes has changed the way people purchase music. Besides the fact that music can be purchased without leaving the house or accumulating heavy CD's, the option of purchasing individual songs instead of a whole album has yet again increased popularity of the idea of 'singles'. Also, the low cost of 99cents (US dollars) attracts consumers. Although it's obvious that the Internet does not just effect I.T., I felt that was a perfect example of how Web 2.0 is changing other industries.

By: Bull3t on Flikr (2/08/2007) Some rights reserved.

I haven't given much thought to Production Project B as yet because I'm a tad weighed down with other assessments, but i think i'll explore the 'Geo-narrative' option a bit more. This week I came across two very different YouTube videos on that i felt were post-worthy. The first is a really funny scene from this years Celebrity Apprentice (airing in the U.S.) I won't ruin it too much, but basically it's showing Joan and Mellissa Rivers' reaction to Mellissa being 'fired'. It's worth watching the WHOLE 3 minutes and 55 seconds:

Naturally 7 are an American singing group who perform their own complete sound (vocals and percussion) Although they started off as a viral video a few years ago, they're quite well known in the U.S. and Europe these days:

Hey Jude!

By: lifesforsharing (T-Mobile, U.K.) on YouTube (2/5/2009)

Impressive!

Week 7 - Almost there!

By: Thomas Broome. Featured on Kottke (7/4/09)

First of all, sorry about the corny title, i was going to have 'The Final Climb', so be thankful! Really i was aiming to reflect this cool picture i found, in the title of this weeks blog post. Anyway...In our final week of classes before holidays we worked on our Project A piece of assessment. Although i had a bit to go, i was confident what was left would be completed during our final tutorial. Really my main difficulty was working out exactly how much material to include, but i thought i would make it more of a visual exhibition rather than textual because what Gaudi had to show was the most important part (even though i have included a lot of text). Although I will be making a few tweaks here and there before i submit, take a look and feel free to comment on my Production Project A, a blog exhibiting Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi's life and most important works:

http://antonigaudi1926.blogspot.com/

By: ticon0 on Flikr (2/12/07) Some rights reserved.

Check this out - it's a Steam powered Ipod charger. Apparently it's based on the same motor that's used to power certain Lego models. Check out the video and follow my links if you feel like reading more about it.

Week 6: Carving up the world

By: Sebastian Prooth on Flikr (6/12/06) Some rights reserved.

This week, Michael Honey gave us a really interesting lecture: 'Carving up the world'. What grabbed my attention was when he spoke about the limitations of the Internet. The internet is lacking in the types of structures or default conventions that are oh so familiar in our everyday 'physical' worlds. This is a hurdle for the Internet because it something that humans learn from other humans and then it just becomes normal - it is hard to mirror this in technology because there are so many different possibilities online. This was how i understood it anyway, so hopefully this makes sense to everyone else!

In the Tutorial, as with the last couple of weeks, we worked on our Production Project. As i've said in previous posts, i've chose to do an Online exhibition about Antoni Gaudi, a Spanish architect. I wish i had of given myself more time to refine my research on Gaudi as well as refining the finished product but because of all my other assesment, i've put this last - i'll just have to devote more time to it in this final week before it's due. I've found it a really fun assignment (if there is such a thing) because i've been able to reminice about my trip to Barcelona and learn about something (architecture/art) that i normally would be far too lazy to immerse myself in. In other words, thankfully the assignment hasn't been too arduous.

By: xn44 on Flikr (13/4/2008) Some rights reserved.

I'm still quite unsure exactly what the tutors expect from us (not that they havn't been massively helpful, because they have) because i've noticed other people's work which seems to be a lot more thought out and attractive than mine and they certainly seem to be going to a lot more effort. Nathan did tell me i'm on the right track so i guess i should just stop worrying!

Now to finish off this blog post, here is something totally unrelated and very bizarre that i found off a blog i follow - Boing Boing. Apparently there is a new trend of 'Crushed Smartie' smoking - with kids! I'll let you watch it...

Ugly mobile phones

By: Daniel Ionescu on PC World via Digg Gadgets 3/05/2009

These are some of the ugliest phones and many of them lack even the basics of functions. Follow the article from PC World on Digg.

Cooks' Den

It sounds strange but one of the blogs i watch is one called 'Cook's Den'. Sometimes it has some really cool things. I'm a big tea-drinker and i'm also lazy so this Zarafina Tea making suite appealed to me (i sound like the voice over from Wheel of fortune!) Also the Nostaligia Electrics old-fashioned kettle popcorn maker looks like something Michael Jackson would have at the Neverland ranch...follow the picture links to read more :-)

From: Cooks Den (27/03/2009)

From: Cooks Den (29/03/2009)

(For the record, i have not been paid nor am I a representative for either of those companies!)

'Fruit' drinks

By: Naoto Fukasawa on Toxel via Ainsley Drew on Kottke (1/04/2009)

I'd love to see if it really feels like a banana. I wonder if it tastes bitter like a banana if you bite into it?

Top Ghosts

'The Brown Lady' By: Captain Provand (Stephen Wagner on About.com) via Digg (30/03/2009)

Check out some of the best Ghost pictures ever taken!

Week 5 - Working on Project A

MorBCN on Flikr (08/12/2008) Some rights reserved

We had no lecture this week, but in our tutorials, Max encouraged us to concentrate on our Production Project A, which is due in Week 7. I'm comfortable with the direction my Online Exhibition is heading in. I've been researching Antoni Gaudi's background and obviously i'm going to fill my Blog with plenty of pictures and text but i'm also looking at including some cool videos of some of his work's locations. For example the Sagrada Famiglia, north of Barcelona City. Check out the following video of the Sagrada Famiglia. I also want to focus on the effect his work has had on Barcelona's tourism.

-Sean

Explaining Twitter

By: TEDTalks on YouTube via Scout Finch on DailyKos (22/03/2009)

I don't know about you, but although I understand it, i find explaining Twitter quite difficult!

Week 4 - Remix, API, Mashup

Remix, API and Mashup - something that meant absolutely nothing to me before this week. Although i was familiar with HTML, XML and CSS - i was certainly unsure of what Remix, API and Mashup involved. Luckily this was all explained quite well in Max Wheeler's lecture on the subject. Application Programming Interface (API) which is basically a bunch of functions that you can interact and manipulate within the data of an application. It's a good way to see what other people can do with what you created. Mashups basically combine services using the different API's of those services. Max showed us a bunch of examples of API's and Mashups. They were really cool, especially one created from the Twitter API - Twistori. It basically shows all the posts displaying the words: Love, Hate, Think, Believe, Feel and Wish in real time. Also, while searching for some videos about API's i found a cool Google Earth API on YouTube and an overview of YouTube's API and Tools

publikaccion.es on Flickr (29/06/08) Some rights reserved

As i mentioned last week, i had settled on doing an Information Flow for my Project A, but since chatting about each option during our Tutorial i've completely changed my mind and am going to focus on curating an Online exhibition. My subject - Antoni Gaudi. I'm not an art critic or an expert of architecture, but when i recently travelled to Barcelona i learnt a lot about his work and saw a lot of it too. I look forward to creating something that really shows his works off.

During the Tutorial with Nathan we further discussed API's, looked at different examples and started working on our own Pipes. What are Pipes? Pipes are basically an application that you can mashup, manipulate and aggregate different content online. It's a service offered through Yahoo and i initially found it wuite difficult, but after watching a few starter videos i got the hang of it.

-Sean

Çult of the 'Snuggie'

By: aurvondel on Flikr (11/02/2009) Some rights reserved.

Have you seen the ads on TV for 'The Snuggie'? They're absolutely hilarious. Apparently, they're good for sporting events and gardening! Check them out: www.snuggie.com.au

The birds and the bees

By: Wes johnson on Vimeo 13/3/2009

Very cool - This flock of birds look so small they're like a swarm of bees!

Week 3 - HTML & CSS

Jesper Rønn-Jensen on Flickr (05/01/07) Some rights reserved

This week's Lecture with Nathan McGuinness focused on HTML and CSS, which i vaguely knew about but hardly understood. We learnt that HTML is pretty simple to write and because it's the first step in website creation it's important to understand it, even though applications like Dreamweaver take away a lot of the hassle and do it for you. We started off by learning some important terminology - what HTML actually stood for: Hyper Text Markup Language and some popular tags including 'p' for Paragraph and 'img' for Image. I won't go into too much more detail, but i'm glad i learnt exactly what HTML was and how it contributes to website creation. We also learnt briefly about XML or Extensible Markup Language which is basically HTML using further describing language.

Brajeshwar on Flickr (14/08/06) Some rights reserved

I wanted to put relevant pictures/links in my Blog this week so i searched Flickr for some HTML jokes, if you're interested there's a page of them from a Danish web-developer at Justaddwater. In the Tutorial with Nathan we made a website from scratch using HTML and CSS. It was called 'Ice Cream Lab Sandwiches' and we built it from basic HTML and then added CSS files to change the appearance and make the site look a little more interesting. It was quite interesting to build it completely from scratch and it showed me how important it is to get the HTML perfect because if there's even one word slightly mispelt or incorrectly placed, the whole thing just won't work. I'm starting to think about my Project A and i think i'm leaning towards doing an Information Flow for Facebook, but we'll see how that goes.

-Sean

Week 2 - Blogs

Afternoon all,

Our Lecture this week was all about Blogs by Nathan McGuinnes, another member of Ice Lab. Although i already knew a bit about Blogs, icertainly didn't realise how popular they were. I also learnt about RSS Feeds. Speaking as someone that views a few diferrent blogs daily, it certainly saves a lot of time being able to scroll down one page to see which ones have been updated. I use Google Reader as a platform to check all my RSS feeds. I was apprehensive at first about writing my own blog, because i wasn't sure if i'd run out of things to say and the fact that several people might read it, but being able to post a few things i'm interested in has made it a bit easier.

This week we had our first Tutorial for Networked Media Production. Our tutor Max (who is the third person from Ice Lab) basically showed us a bunch of really cool Internet sites and we shared sites that we were interested in. We also focused on blogs. It was interesting that most, if not all the people in the tutorial were regular users of Facebook and a lot of people had Blogs. I'm a very regular Facebook user and i read several different blogs but this is my first ever Blog and although it's i'm used to it now, i didn't know what to expect.

I'm a regular viewer of Digg.com, but i also check out a few different sites on a daily basis including: College Humour which is this great American production company that started off on YouTube and daily posts skits and a few other things they find funny.

Trip Advisor is a great blog that people can post Travel advice and stories from around the world. I found it really useful when i travelled around Europe and their forums are really helpful too. I like to keep up to date with what's happening in the U.K. as i lived their briefly and i have friends over there, so i like The Guardian website as it's probably one of the more credible newspapers in the U.K. I also view the Sydney Morning Herald website on a daily basis.

Since today, i've picked up a few others from the Lecture and Tutorial. One of them that i'll be checking daily from now on is Gizmodo. It's a great Aussie Gadget guide with plenty of cool Gadget news as well as news, videos and pictures. My opinions of Blogs has changed over the past few days because although i used to regularly check various blogs, i've certainly been discovering several other cool ones.

-Sean

Open microphone

By: Jed Lewison from DailyKos 27/02/2009

Check this out - nothing funnier than an open mic :-)

Week 1

By: cambodia4kidsorg on Flikr (11/10/2006) Some rights reserved.

Hi everyone :-)

Our first Lecture for Networked Media was done by Michael Honey from Ice Lab (a Canberra based Design Studio). Apart from a standard Introduction to the course, including assesment, expectations etc. Michael Honey talked about one of the most major media network: The Internet. I realised even more how Facebook, MySpace, Google and blogs etc. are making the Internet even more popular and powerful, with people using these forms of communication veen more than ever.

I found it really interesting when Michael focused briefly on where the Internet all began, including various diagrams and pictures showing what the Internet used to look and Barner's-Lee original proposal for the Internet.

All in all, I'm looking forward to studying this unit as i've always been highly interested in the different types of media and communication, as well as production. I've never done a Blog before, but i do view several on a daily basis. One that i find really interesting is Digg.com which i was referred to by a friend from the U.K. basically stories are ranked according to how many 'diggs' they recieve from users. They also have a pretty cool Vodcast that i watch weekly. This is one of the funny videos 'dugg' that i noticed this past week- It's by the same people that did 'Jizz in my Pants' - I'm on a Boat - The Lonely Island.

-Sean